New Year in Jordan
We were in Jordan from December 30 to January 6.2008. We flew with Jordanian Airlines. When departing from Domodedovo, there was a delay of 2 hours, but by today's standards, this is not a delay at all. I was very pleased with the service on board, and the board itself is well equipped, each passenger has their own built-in TV with an excellent selection of films and cartoons.
We flew to the capital of Jordan, Amman. I would like to immediately note the excellent organization of the meeting by the host of Taiki Tours. We met at the border, told where you can get visas - 10 dinars (almost 10 euros). They put me on the bus. The first point of our stay was the city of Aqaba (about 350 km from Amman, but the roads in Jordan are good, so we arrived without any problems). Movenpick Aqaba Hotel. We settled into the room. The room is quite large, everything is there, TV with 2 of our channels.
The hotel itself is beautifully decorated, a passage over the road leads to the beach, at the top of the passage there is a heated pool with a jacuzzi. In general, there are two more pools on the territory, one winter, the water is heated to 26, one summer - well, now, of course, it’s cold to swim in it. The area is green with many flowers. The beach (Red Sea) is sandy, the sea is wonderful for January (21 C). On the street in the afternoon 24-26. It's cold to go in, but then you can swim for a long time. True, not for fish lovers, they are not there. They say that for this you need to go to the Coral Bay hotel, there is a coral reef. The beach has all kinds of water sports. Sunbeds, umbrellas - free of charge.
We only had breakfast. An excellent choice. Omelettes are fried right in front of you, with what you want. There are a lot of oriental sweets, however, I can’t evaluate their quality, because I don’t like it.
The hotel has several restaurants. We were in one of them, were completely satisfied with both the service and the food. There is a bar open until 3 am.
New Year's Eve was celebrated at the hotel. Tables were set outside. There were gas heaters, so no one was cold. In the evening in January it is still cool - somewhere around 16-18 C. The food is a buffet. There was a good selection of seafood. Meat, fish, salads. There were fireworks at 12, they say the best in Aqaba. Disco, belly dancing, hookahs, prizes and gifts. There are a lot of Russians in the hotel, but the contingent is very different from Egypt (who knows, will understand).
Room cleaning twice a day. The hotel staff itself is friendly, everyone speaks English, maybe Russian, we have not tried it .
A representative of Thai tours was at the reception every day until the evening.
From Aqaba we drove to the Wadi Rum desert. Impressive, very impressive. Red sand that changes color in places. Beautiful mountains, gorges. They bring you there by bus, in the desert you change to jeeps (open and closed). In January it is cool in the desert, so it is better to dress warmly (sweater, windbreaker).
We met the sunset, an amazing sight ...
Aqaba itself is a booming resort. There is no comparison with Egypt at all ...(may his fans forgive me). Restaurants for every taste, wine, beer and vodka for those who wish in shops on every corner. By the way, about wine - Jordan itself produces wine, of very decent quality, I advise you to try it. Souvenir shops, shops, discos - everything is there. The Jordanians themselves are wonderful people. No one clings to you, does not drag you into stores. The girls can safely walk in the evening. Apparently, the fact that Jordanian women, for the most part, are dressed quite in a European way, jeans, T-shirts, a scarf on their heads is also present, however, it is not necessary and does not cover the entire face.
On the third of January we started to the Dead Sea, through Petra.
Petra - this must be seen, and, be sure to do it with your own eyes. The seventh wonder of the world - after all.
I won’t talk much about Petra, I’ll say one thing - it shakes to the core. Fabulous!! ! We regretted that we had so little time. You have to go there for two days to see everything and climb everywhere. We had a guide from Taiki Tours - just great, he speaks good Russian, he tells interesting things. Answered all questions.
From Petra we went to our hotel on the Dead Sea - Moevenpick Dead Sea. We arrived there late in the evening. Problems with the settlement, as in the first hotel, no. They gave a chic room, with a large balcony, which had a sofa and a deck chair. In the room itself: armchairs, a sofa, two tables, a TV (also 2 of our channels), a large bathroom + shower ...But, for minibar lovers, it is exactly twice as expensive as in Aqaba. The hotel itself consists of the main building and many two - three-storey houses in the "ancient" style (if anyone was on the island of Rhodes - very similar to the old city). The territory is also all green, flowers, swimming pools.
One large - cold, the second small - the water is heated to 30 degrees. And two more cold pools.
On the territory is located, as they say, the most famous Spa - Zara Spa. I won’t lie - we didn’t go ...There are also several restaurants (Italian, grill, Chinese), a bar. We were in Italian - we liked everything. I must say right away that there are 4 hotels on the Dead Sea - that's it ! ! There are no shops even with water - stock up. In the hotel you can buy water-wine only in bars, restaurants - well, it's a matter of price - if it is important, then you need to stock up in advance. Although, I think that everything will be built here soon on such a grand scale.
Just like in the first hotel, we only had breakfast. Despite the fact that the hotel is from the same chain, it seemed to us that in Aqaba there was more choice ...
The beach on the Dead Sea is sand, but the entry into the sea is stone, it is better to take a special one. slippers.
Feelings from the sea are very interesting - you feel like a buoy - it's impossible to drown, even if you don't know how to swim at all. Water 21 C, air somewhere around 23 C (colder than in Aqaba). Be careful with water - if it gets into the eyes or stings insanely in the nose, rinse immediately with fresh water. In general, the water of the Dead Sea itself resembles oil - you can’t convey it in words ...On the beach you can smear yourself with healing mud - we smeared ourselves, I don’t know how healing, but what fun - that’s for sure !!
Sunbeds and umbrellas are also free.
On the 4th in the afternoon the weather turned bad, it began to rain. We decided to go see the capital Amman. 40km from our hotel. Taxi ordered directly at the hotel. New Citroen for 80 euros (dinars). The driver picks us up at the hotel and in 30 minutes we are in Amman.
The driver is Jordanian, speaks excellent English, showed us the whole city, all the interesting places (this is included in the price), then brought us to the shopping center (we were not very interested, but it was raining and it was pointless to walk around the city). If anyone was interested in Mecca Mall, it's like our Mega, only many times larger. Shops are the same + restaurants from McDonald's to good ones. In general, you can overstock well. Amman also has a street with boutiques (D&G, Gucci, etc. ). A few hours later, the same driver picked us up and brought us to the hotel. That is, the car was at our disposal for five hours. If it weren’t for the rain, you can see a lot, especially since the driver is also a guide.
By the way, the representative of Taiki tours also sits at the reception all day.
January 5th we spent in idle felting on the beach. We didn’t go anywhere, we wanted to swim. In the evening we smoked hookah and drank wine.
January 6th. Checked out of the hotel.
Let's go to the bus - he then came on time, but two of our tourists were waiting for about 40 minutes. Although this surprised few.
We checked in at the airport in five minutes. We walked around duty free. By the way, the airport in Amman is a modern building with shops and restaurants (again, a comparison with creepy tents in Hurghada is imposed ...it's scary to remember). Flew out second by second.
Separately, I want to say about the Jordanians themselves. Wonderful, responsive, hospitable people. They try to help in everything. And the country itself simply shocked us, to be honest, we expected to see something like Egypt. Happy we were wrong! It is a pity that we did not see many interesting places. Mount Nebo, Jerash, the ruins of Crusader castles, holy places… We will definitely return, for two weeks already, we will rent a car, fortunately - roads, interchanges, driving style of local residents, as well as signs in English allow…